The word detox fills me with dread. Detox dieting sounds really nasty and I wouldn’t touch those eating programmes with a barge pole.

Or would I?

What do those designers of eating regimes mean by detox?

Detox first showed its ugly head through potions – thick green ones supposedly loaded with herbs and nutrients to help you detox. Putting in more ‘stuff’ for the body to assimilate and digest and produce further toxins to help expel the supposed toxins already present.

But I think nothing spectacular occurred and all the dieter was left with was glass smeared with the nasty liquid and a nasty taste in the mouth.

Then I think Nutritionists got involved and designed a ‘good food’ eating plan but continued with the name ‘detox’ because it would help sell their ideas.

That’s fine. I think we all know now what Good Food is and what synthetic foods we shouldn’t touch. I think we all know that we should be eating many portions of vegetables and fruit with some protein. I think we all know what ‘good’ food is.

Being anatomically minded my questions are:

• How does a body get toxic in the first place because its very design is to flush out toxins all the time.
• How does anyone know when the body is not fulfilling its tasks of adequate toxin removal?

You would need some very serious symptoms to know if the body was toxic. Very serious conditions affecting the liver, kidneys, stomach, pancreas, bile duct, digestive system, gut, colon, heart, circulation, lymphatics etc etc etc.

Over Christmas my son said he was meated out and needed some more vegetables. He has a vorocious appetite. He is a healthy eating machine. We eat a lot of vegetables and fruit, probably could do with eating more. I said Whatever meat you have eaten is not an much as would have been in a Spaghetti Bolognese for example, you are suffering from a lack of movement. Not too much food and not too much ‘wrong’ food.

I don’t mean Sporting movements like Running, Pumping Iron at the Gym or Mountain Climbing. I mean simple movement.

Movement is the first very necessary action that stimulates the body’s organs to get on with their work.

In the winter when it is cold and even more so this winter that has been so freezing, we move our bodies less, a lot less.

Tiny misalignments of the bony structures are caused by poor posture, lack of movement, and the way we complete activities.

These misalignments cause blockages of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and spinal cord, challenges the lymphatic flow and the blood and nerve supples.

Most of the time these blockages are only slight and are easily remedied by normal movement. How often do we hear a click when we stand up and stretch after sitting for so long?

But sometimes the misalignment gets stuck and isn’t so easily corrected without massage and a programme of serious stretches.

In either case toxins can get trapped and are not so easily moved once the body is working more efficiently. It isn’t more food or more nutrients the body needs, it is movement. From your own activities or from professional massage and stretching classes.

The body is perfectly designed to do its own detoxing and so to aid it:

Move Your Body!

But if dancing is not for you, read below for a programme of movement and stretching:

• Bend down and allow the top of your head to point to the floor.
• Allow your shoulders to hang and your arms to dangle.
• Stand with your feet hip width distant apart and try and keep your legs straight, ie knees pushed back. It may hurt at first so if this is too uncomfortable bend your knees slightly and try and straighten them at times through this programme.
• Feel the stretch in the back of your upper legs, lower legs and spine.
• After a minute or two, staying in that position, bring your hands together and push them through your legs.
• Push and release several times.
• Bring your hands back to the front and twist around and take your hands outside your left leg and then twist around and take your hands to the outside of your right leg.
• Do this several times slowly.
• With your head still hanging down to the floor, bring your left arm up to the ceiling, twisting your upper body and bringing your right around to the front.
• Do the same movement to the opposite side – your right.
• Stand up.

This movement has stretched every aspect of the spine allowing freer movements of fluids and nerve supply. The neck and shoulders have been stretched and this movement has also stretched the hamstrings and gluteals and calf muscles. And you have stretched the beginnings of the psoas muscle which is part of the hip-flexors.

If you are suffering with CFS/ME or any chronic condition you may need to lie down for a while after this stretching.

If you are not suffering from any chronic condition, then go to jump up and down on the spot. This is energetic and may be too much for those suffering with CFS/ME or any chronic condition.

• Start jumping by allowing your heels to leave the floor but not the toes – so that you are bouncing. Keep your knees very slightly bent.
• Now jump for a minute, little jumps on the spot.

Stretch the spine out again in the manner above.

Now you are ready to get on with your day! And your body is ready to detox itself – naturally.